Automobiles utilize various passive and active safety restraint systems to protect vehicle occupants. The passive restraint systems may include restraint systems, such as systems having load absorbing and occupant deflecting materials, or systems, such as head restraint systems, seat belt systems, and airbags. The active restraint systems may include steering control and brake control systems. The restraint systems typically include collision severity sensors, which are used to gather information for control and deployment of the restraints.
To evaluate and develop existing and new restraint systems various computer simulations, sled tests, and vehicle collision tests are performed. The vehicle tests include barrier and vehicle-to-vehicle collision testing. Several testing procedures and requirements exist for such evaluation. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for example has a lateral impact new car assessment program (LINCAP) by which new vehicles are laterally impacted at a 27° offset angle at a resultant 38 mph. A head injury criterion and a thoracic trauma index is measured and compared with desired values to rate the new vehicle. Federal motor vehicle safety standards also exist for side collision testing, such as those in FMVSS214, which involve colliding the side of a vehicle at a resultant 33.5 mph. Both above test modes use 50th percentile male test dummy and the collision object is a car like barrier.
Recently, IIHS adopted a new vehicle evaluation test for side collisions. The test is more severe than previous side collision tests. The test uses a heavier truck like barrier and a 5th percentile female test dummy. New FMVSS214 regulations are to be imposed by the federal government starting approximately in the year 2009, which utilize the truck like barrier and 5th percentile female test dummy. Thus, it is desired that newly introduced vehicles satisfy this type of testing.
Traditionally, to improve side collision performance of a vehicle during a side collision event, vehicle side structures have been reinforced and interior restraints have been designed. The structures have included B-pillars, roof rails, rocker panels, and doors. Sheet metal and trim panels of the stated structures have been altered. Items such as armrests have been modified such that they are recessed or collapsed during a collision event. The structural changes often involve costly tooling and require prolonged development. Also, the structural changes tend to provide minimal or limited improvement on collision performance as compared with modification to interior restraints.
Some current interior restraints that have been modified include foam blocks located within the doors of a vehicle, sometimes referred to as a pusher system, upper side airbags, and pelvic airbags. Although the foam blocks aid in the absorption of some of the collision event loads and tend to push a vehicle occupant laterally inward earlier in a collision event, the foam blocks often require door sheet metal or structural change. The upper side airbags are limited in their ability to protect the lower portions of an occupant body, such as the pelvic region. The pelvic airbags are also limited due to the amount of space available between an interior door trim panel and an occupant pelvis and the small amount of time available in a collision event to deploy a pelvic airbag.
Thus, there exists a need for an improved side safety restraint system that minimizes and delays the contact with and the load exerted on a vehicle occupant by a side vehicle structure during a side collision event.